Student Loan Consolidation Info

Student Loan Forgiveness?

There are certain situations in which the federal government will relieve you entirely of all or part of your obligation to repay federal student loans – This is called student loan forgiveness. Not everyone is eligible for forgiveness of a student loan, however. To qualify, you must be involved in volunteer work, serve in the military, teach in a designated secondary or elementary school for low-income or special education students or other “teacher shortage areas”, and meet other various requirements.

Volunteer work can be done for several different institutions. For example, you could serve in the Peace Corps, traveling to developing countries to help people struggling with poverty and hunger. With two years of Peace Corps service, your Perkins student loan will be 30% forgiven, and you will be able to defer payment until the end of your service. Partial student loan forgiveness through volunteer work can also be achieved through VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America), a private non profit group dedicated to the eradication of poverty in the United States. If you serve 1,700 hours, you will receive almost $5,000.

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program is directed towards government (including military) or non-profit public service organization workers. Make 120 on-time qualifying payments after 1 Oct 2007 while in a qualifying income driven or 10 year standard repayment plan and your Federal Direct Loan balance may be forgiven. You can find more information about this and other programs at https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/sites/default/files/military-student-loan-benefits.pdf.

Student loan forgiveness can be achieved through full-time teaching positions in “teacher shortage areas,” such as low income, special education, mathematics, science, foreign languages and bilingual education. The chief administrator of the qualified school at which you taught will have to verify your participation and completion. Health care professionals can also have their payments deferred or totally forgiven with participation in the health care profession.

There are other, less common ways to become eligible for partial or total student loan forgiveness. For example, if the school happened to close within 90 days of your enrollment and you were unable to finish your course(s), you may be eligible for a partial forgiveness of your loan, dependent on the amount of your expenses. If you did not receive an expected refund, you may be eligible for forgiveness of the amount of that refund. If your signature was forged on your loan agreements, your loan can be forgiven. If you find yourself temporarily or permanently disabled, you may receive student loan